Winter Olympics: Sofia Goggia beats Lindsey Vonn to become Italy's first female downhill champion

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Winter Olympics: Watch Sofia Goggia claim Italy's first downhill gold

XXIII Olympic Winter Games

Venue: Pyeongchang, South Korea Dates: 9-25 February

Coverage: Watch live on BBC TV, Red Button, Connected TVs, BBC Sport website and mobile app. Full coverage times

Sofia Goggia saw off the challenge of American Lindsey Vonn to become the first Italian to win the women's downhill.

The 25-year-old, who leads the World Cup downhill standings, clocked one minute 39.22 seconds to clinch gold.

Norway's Ragnhild Mowinckel was just 0.09 secs behind Goggia, while Vonn took bronze.

The 33-year-old won downhill gold in 2010 and finished sixth in the super G on Saturday.

Mowinckel, 25, also won silver in the giant slalom behind American Mikaela Shiffrin, who withdrew from the downhill to focus on the alpine combined event, which has been brought forward from Friday to Thursday.

This is set to be the last Games for Vonn, who hung on for a third Olympic medal after being 0.47 secs slower than Goggia.

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Tearful Vonn 'wants to keep racing forever but can't'

"I was really giving attention to every little detail, moving like a samurai - usually I'm pretty chaotic," Goggia said.

"Samurai are really perfect. They move with elegance. I'm not elegant but I paid attention at every moment to what I was doing."

Liechtenstein's Tina Weirather just missed out on adding to the bronze she won in the super G event as she was 0.63 slower in fourth.

Switzerland's Lara Gut was the only skier that finished in the top 10 at Sochi 2014 to compete this time around and it looked like she would post a competitive time until she missed a gate.

Elsewhere, Canada's Christopher Del Bosco was taken to hospital after crashing during the men's ski cross.

Del Bosco lost control in mid-air during a jump and fell heavily onto his right side. He was taken off the hill on a stretcher and went to hospital for treatment on a suspected broken pelvis.

'We faced each other on a human level'

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Cheerleaders held up the United Korea flag during the women's ice hockey matches

Shin So-jung, a member of the combined Korean women's ice hockey squad, has said that "bonding over sports" means that the two sides "don't feel the difference between the North and South".

The team lost all five of their matches but their show of unity led International Olympic Committee member Angela Ruggiero to suggest they be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Sarah Murray, who coached the side, said she was unsure if the unified team would play together again.

"If we had just one player who decided that they weren't accepting the North on our team, it would have made things really difficult," she said.

"Even the players that didn't get the chance to play in every game, they were still being a great member of the team."

Captain Park Jong-ah added: "We were floundering at the beginning, but once we played together as one team, we established camaraderie and we faced each other on a human level."

Petition to ban speed skaters grows

A petition to ban two South Korean speed skaters has been signed by over 500,000 people.

Kim Bo-reum and Park Ji-woo are accused of bullying Noh Seon-yeong after they missed out on the semi-finals of the 500m team pursuit heats.

Noh - who had been hoping to win gold to honour her brother, who died of bone cancer in 2016 - cried after the race, with her team-mates appearing to ignore her as she left the arena.

Her team-mates then appeared to blame her for their disappointing finish, saying she "could not keep up" with them.

If a petition receives over 200,000 signatures within 30 days, the Blue House - the residence of South Korea's head of state - must address the issue, but it has yet to comment.

Noh almost missed out on competing in the Pyeongchang Games after an "administrative error" by the sport's governing body.

What happened on Wednesday?

Image source, BBC Sport

Other news from day 12

  • The world record fell twice in the ladies' short programme as Russian Alina Zagitova topped compatriot Evgenia Medvedeva to lead the ladies' figures skating.

  • Freestyle skier Elizabeth Swaney has been compared to Eddie the Eagle by an Olympics official after she didn't attempt any tricks in her halfpipe qualifying run.

  • Jamaican bobsleigh pilot Jazmine Fenlator, who finished 19th in the women's event, said she hoped her appearance at the Games would encourage Caribbean nations to take the Winter Olympics more seriously.

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